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OPINION

Rall: BWL natural gas plan is not clean enough, too costly

Steve Rall is a member of the Lansing Environmental Action Team. LEAT is comprised of concerned citizens working with environmental and energy experts to reduce the use of fossil fuels..
Published 5:30 a.m. ET April 5, 2018 | Updated 9:32 a.m. ET April 5, 2018

Did you know that you recently agreed to pay $500 million for a 250 megawatt fossil fuel plant? You have “purchased” a power plant that the BWL is calling “reliable, affordable, and cleaner” in their slick TV ads.

In this era of increasing cyber and terrorists attacks, relying on large centralized power plants, doesn’t seem very smart or reliable. You’d think there are some other ways to distribute that risk. There are. And they are less costly.

Half a billion dollars? Does that sound affordable to you? That’s $10 million, every year, for 50 years. And cleaner? We know, without a doubt, that natural gas is not clean energy. When you include the leaking of methane in the fracking process and the transmission of the natural gas, it’s nearly as dirty as coal. This is what BWL claims we agreed to. Can you believe it?

Well, maybe we didn’t actually agree to it. But the BWL Board of Commissioners did. Unanimously! Do you know these commissioners? Do you recall voting for them? I’ll bet most of us can’t even explain how these commissioners are chosen or the criteria or expectations for serving on the board.

Shouldn’t the mayor and city council have more oversight than a group of volunteer commissioners with a decision of such magnitude?

This decision will have enormous implications for us in the decades to come. Many of your neighbors and friends have expressed their concerns repeatedly, yet the board has chosen to act hastily without further study.

The Lansing Environmental Action Team, along with concerned citizens and energy experts have presented 10 reasonable and cost-saving proposals to BWL in recent weeks. These are based on best practices in Michigan and across the country.

For example, the Lansing Environmental Action Team proposes the BWL to work with local communities and governments to develop self-contained micro grids for critical use facilities, like hospitals and first responder centers. These will protect critical facilities in case of natural disasters, cyber or physical attacks that might knock out the macro grid. In turn, they can provide backup power during high demand.

A second proposal encourages “open source bidding.” Instead of limiting the bids to a preordained large fossil fuel plant, open the bidding to all options that can provide for our energy needs. Arizona just implemented a moratorium on new large natural gas plants because of cheaper, cleaner alternatives. Maybe we should too.

BWL’s plan is based on modeling completed more than two years ago. You wouldn’t use two-year-old information to buy a new car, computer, or smart-phone today, and we shouldn’t be relying on it for any $500 million decisions, either. The energy future is simply changing too fast, with new and better options proliferating all over the place.